This invention relates to a feed and food supplement composition for ruminant and monogastric animals including humans; this group hereafter referred to as ruminant and monogastric animals, and more particularly to a ruminant and monogastric animal feed and food supplement containing an indirect source of protein which is made available to the ruminant and monogastric animal at a controlled rate during the digestive processes of the ruminant and monogastric animal.
Ruminant feed supplement compositions currently in use are most frequently formulated to include, in addition to trace amounts of minerals, urea as an indirect source of protein in a mixture with vegetable nutrients. It is believed that the urea contained in the feed supplement compositions is converted during the digestive processes of the ruminant and monogastric animals to ammonia which in turn is an intermediate in the production of protein by the ruminant's metabolic processes. Feeds for monogastric animals are not presently formulated containing urea, although these animals have some capabilities to utilize small amounts of non-protein nitrogen. Hydrolysed urea produces larger amounts of ammonia than the monogastric animal can use immediately. Because ruminant and monogastric animals have the capacity of converting the urea to ammonia at a rate significantly greater than the rate at which ammonia is converted to protein, the use of urea in feed compositions must be carefully controlled. The supply of excess amounts of urea to ruminants and monogastric animals frequently results in the absorption of ammonia in the bloodstream, commonly referred to as alkalosis, which can be fatal to ruminant and monogastric animals.